"Dear Michael and Kris,

We are under tremendous pressure at my firm, and all my colleagues feel the same way. There have been staff cuts. My team went from fourteen people to ten this year, while more work has been added to our plates. We are also expected to find the time to master AI to handle the additional work.

Right now, most of what we do is heavily tracked to train the AI. Every review note, query and tick mark is logged, and we are told it feeds the firm’s audit tools.

My question, if it is a question, is why management does not realize they are forcing us to use AI to sign off audits. There is no other way for us to handle the workload. And why do they not understand that training and using AI is not the same as becoming a better auditor?

At this stage I am no longer an auditor. I am training an AI system and answering random Q&A prompts, and that is not what I want. I cannot see myself following the trajectory of the typical audit partner."